The Owl

I just finished reading Wesley the Owl, by Stacey O'Brien. I know, it's not about a parrot, but it is by a woman who kept a bird for 18 years, and about the incredibly deep and affectionate relationship they had.

O'Brien's a smart, funny writer and she makes this a rollicking good read right up until the last. It is not to be missed.

Odd

I was sitting in the bird room, keeping the AGP company and attending to some paperwork chores yesterday, when the bluebirds arrived.

To clarify, they've been hanging around in the neighborhood for a week or two, but this was the first appearance I've noted at my bluebird box.

The odd part was that Mr. Bluebird brought two ladies to examine the box! I've never seen that before. He went in first, and they hung out on the top and front until he'd done checking it out. When he popped out, the Sister Wives got in a fight about, one presumes, who was going to go in next.

They fought to a standoff and both left.

Today, Mr. B. was back, alone.

Wonder what that was all about?

Her hand in his...

Tail feather

Waiting for Daylight

The One-Minute Writer: Today's Writing Prompt: Waiting

I breakfast in the bird room--it's my favorite room in the house. I can put my feet up in here, and wrap myself in my afghan to ward off the pre-dawn chill. The dog has been fed and lies sleeping again by my chair. The AGP is still on her favorite sleeping perch, but occasionally says "hello" softly, quietly. I reply, "Good morning, how are you, did you sleep well?" as I am trying hard to teach her this.

Breakfast is usually a bagel and cream cheese, and always two cups of Peet's Ethiopian. Every light in the house and out is turned off. The Birdfather calls this "sitting in the dark." I call it "enjoying the natural light." I eat, and drink coffee. When I am done eating, I flip open the laptop and boot up. The screen is turned down low. I sip my coffee. I check my office e-mail and bank accounts. I check my personal e-mail and bank accounts. I sip more coffee, and listen to the AGP preening in the dark.

My neighbors are starting to leave for work. One by one, their cars pass, lights briefly breaking up the pre-dawn darkness. A few I recognize by the shapes of the dark spaces between head- and tail-lamps. I visit, in this order, the StatCounter for activity on my blogs (there are two people who have already been there every day by this time: I wonder who they are), Facebook, and my blogger Dashboard to see if any of the folks I follow have anything new up since last night. I finish my coffee. The dog stretches and yawns in the quiet blackness to my left.

This is usually a peaceful time. The house is asleep, the neighborhood barely stirring. I think about my day. Today it's a little stressful, however, as I discover I have a very large, very important bill that won't "go" through the bill-payer thingy because there's not enough money to cover it. So this morning I sit in the dark, waiting for daylight, chewing my lip, worrying at this problem, as if thinking about it will somehow solve it.

There is a dark purple-tinged glow on the horizon, but it will be a long time to daylight today, as the weather has us completely socked in.

The clock chimes seven. I tell the girls, "It is time to get this show on the road."

Part-tay!

Turns out the AGP is a party animal.

We had a couple dozen folks over to celebrate the Birdfather's retirement. We worried that a noisy crowd would upset her, and we considered putting her in her travel cage in the back of the house for the duration. But since that end of the house tends to run colder, we decided to try leaving her. The way the house is laid out, even though it's what they used to call an "open plan", people didn't circulate through the bird room but frequently went to meet and talk to her one or two at a time.

And she ate it up. By the end of the first hour or so, if no one was in there with her, she'd start trying to whistle up some interaction! And she was a big hit with our guests.

Cross-posted

On a clicker-training listserv I subscribe to, a fellow wrote:

Two days ago I finally completed the adoption process and brought a blind Great Dane home to meet the family. We have a parrot -- a white Umbrella Cockatoo . The first day the Dane didn't notice the Cockatoo at all. The Cockatoo sat up on his cage top and ate his food or sat with my wife on the couch.

Then all of the sudden this morning the dog realized that those noises coming from the birdcage were from some sort of animal. The dog went berserk. I had to physically restrain her from charging the cage and knocking it over, and it is a big big cage. I took her into the other room (somewhat forcefully, I am afraid) while I thought about the problem. I have been working all day on a slow approach to the cage while on a leash. She whimpers and whines and strains to charge the cage. She completely ignores all food treats. I tried the strategy of using the cage itself as a reward instead. Each time she relaxes the leash, I would let her take a step forward. I can now do a slow approach to the cage somewhat successfully, though I don't know how reliable it would be. The dog is super stressed out by this: maybe even more so than our bird, who watches from the cage.

Fortunately, I have a spare cage, so I can put the bird in the other cage at night while I work with the dog on this. Any advice or recommendations you can make to help solve this problem? Right now if I so much as tap the cage top, my blind dane goes nuts, even if the bird is in the other room. I am able to get her to lie down calmly after a few minutes beside the cage, but if I even tap the side of the cage, she loses it. Am I trying to do too much too fast? I have only had 24 hours of clicker training with her. She was trained by more traditional methods and is already 4 years old. She is a sweet dog, but does not respond reliably to any commands. Using the clicker, I have been able to get a pretty reliable sit and heel with just 24 hours of practice, so long as the environment is calm. But she is a handful of a dog when she gets stressed out.

I am completely new to clicker training so any feedback is welcome.

I replied:

What I read in a bird book or mag, I forget which, was click and reward for ignoring the bird.

I would put the 'too in his sleep cage and hang out near the regular cage with the dog. That way the dog can go berserk without freaking out the parrot. I would leave the dog off-lead (unless you are worried about her hurting herself) so she can freely offer you behaviors to ignore (extinguish) or treat.

You can stabilize the cage with other furniture or bungee cords so it won't turn over and get damaged, or you can just beat the dog to it and go ahead and lay the cage on its side. Or have a big person stand behind it and hold it in place (like a trainer holding a punching bag in a gym).

The instant the dog stops barking (even if it's just to take a breath) or turns away even a fraction from the cage (whatever you establish as your 1st behavior goal) click and treat. Of course as always, define your ultimate goal (lies quietly by cage ignoring bird, for ex.) and work backwards to establish your sub-goal sequence.

As you work up the sequence, you can tap (but obviously that's too advanced right now) or play a recording of the bird's voice from inside the cage.

In the meantime, and forgive me for stating the obvious, I'm not trying to insult your intelligence here, DON'T LET THAT DOG ANYWHERE NEAR THAT BIRD. The bird may have to live in the sleep cage for awhile.

And be patient. Your dog may go nuts for 20 minutes or more before she offers you anything you can click & treat.

Also, it is important for you to be calm no matter how nuts she gets, because your stress and hers amplify each other. Take a moment to chill out before you start each session, just like you do when you are working with your bird! If you have removed the bird from the situation, then really nothing bad can possibly happen, so repeat to yourself that this is all good, all necessary, and she will sooner or later offer you the behavior you want... this helps keep you cool. If you think to yourself how awful it is that she's banging around, this will never work, etc., etc., then your stress level goes up and so will hers. Make sense?

Finally, I would spend some time, if you haven't already, trying to get the dog's perspective. Being blind, for all that dog knows she's been brought into a home with a resident Pterodactyl. Depending on how training goes the first time, and on what your vet says, maybe a sedative wouldn't be a bad idea just to get her started. Right now she may be too wigged out to hear the clicker or accept a treat without a Benadryl or three!

Another option, if she's crate-trained, is to have additional sessions with her in her crate. Bring your 'too gradually closer, clicking and rewarding for gradually calmer behaviors, perhaps with your ultimate goal being "lying quietly in crate with bird in room yakking it up."

Wouldn't hurt to teach the bird to say "Down" and "Stay" either!

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